MRO Today - Toyota: When average isn't good enough

When average isn't good enough
Toyota's plant in Georgetown, Ky., took a closer look at its safety performance and didn't like what it saw. The auto maker responded with programs that proactively deal with accidents, injuries and ergonomics.

by Paul V. Arnold and Jamie Butters

Statistics say there has never been a safer time to be a manufacturing worker.

Workplace injuries and illnesses are at their lowest point since the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the United States Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics began compiling such figures in 1973. NIOSH reports a greater than 25 percent decline in incidences since '73.

Workplace deaths are also at record low levels. NIOSH reports a greater than 65 percent decline in fatalities since 1970.

This is cause for celebration. Or, is it?

While U.S. industry purchases nearly $3 billion worth of safety
equipment this year . . .
While plants across the country host safety fairs . . .
While hundreds of companies dish out coffee mugs and T-shirts proclaiming "Safety is our No. 1 priority" . . .

These facts remain:
Nearly 1 out of every 10 U.S. manufacturing workers will report a workplace injury or illness this year.

Nearly 1.5 million injuries and 200,000 occupational illnesses will occur in plants this year. Close to 65 percent of the illnesses will be repeated trauma disorders such as carpal tunnel syndrome and noise-induced hearing loss.

Approximately 700 American plant workers will be killed on the job. While that may not seem like a large number, that is almost two per day. More than 5,100 manufacturing-related deaths occurred from 1993 through 1999.

When you take a closer look at the numbers, you see the amount of work that still needs to be done.

This article outlines the efforts of the Toyota Motor Corporation after it took a closer look at its safety performance. Toyota realized "average" safety wasn't good enough.

On the bench
From the time its first automobile rolled off the assembly line in 1988, the Toyota plant in Georgetown, Ky., has been viewed as a model of the new American workplace.

The 7.5 million-square-foot plant in Central Kentucky is a spectacle - well-lit and immaculately clean; a whirring blend of high-tech machines and trained, empowered employees. Mapped by the Toyota Production System, processes have a purpose and a flow.

For the past decade, companies from around the world have visited the plant to benchmark its best practices in the areas of production, quality, maintenance, engineering and environmental affairs.

Notice something missing? Toyota did, but it took some time.

Taking safety off of auto pilot
It could have been a very serious accident.

A radio-controlled crane inside the Georgetown plant crossed signals with a neighboring crane. The second crane swung its load into a tool chest near a group of workers.

No one was hurt, but the incident was thoroughly analyzed at a weekly department heads meeting devoted to safety. The managers discussed how the problem was handled (the cranes were restricted to manual control), what was being done about it (the supplier was called to fix the remote units) and whether the same thing could happen in another department.

The weekly meetings were one of the first changes at the plant as part of a safety campaign, sparked by a jump in overall incidents that brought Toyota to just above the industry average in 1998.

"We don't like to be average at anything," says Mike DaPrile, the plant's vice president of manufacturing.

Manufacturing safety is measured by incident ratings, the number of times employees require medical attention per 100 workers per year.

In 1998, Toyota's incident rating at Georgetown jumped 14 percent to 25.7, just above the industry average of 25. The so-so rating served as a wake-up call, says DaPrile.

"Safety has always been our No. 1 priority," he said. "But maybe we got to where we were talking about it more than doing it."

Since then, the plant re-examined and refocused its efforts on improving safety.

Objectively, the aim is to bring the incident rating down to 9.9 by 2003, a goal Toyota officials say would be an industry standard. Subjectively, the goal is to get every employee to believe that safety will never be compromised.

Over the past year, Toyota's incident rating has come down. It was 24.0 for the first five months of 2000, including a 19.9 in May. But safety manager Gary Karnes says a huge reduction in the severity of incidents is even more significant.

Toyota categorizes safety problems in many ways. The most severe are "Stop 6" incidents, those with the potential to cause a severe injury due to electrical shock, falls, employees getting caught in machinery, etc.

The crane incident this spring was the third "Stop 6" of 2000. The plant is currently on pace with its goal of 10 for the year, down from 20 in 1999.

Besides a push to reduce serious incidents, and the creation of weekly safety and ergonomics meetings, other changes include:
-- Bringing emergency medical technicians, rehabilitation therapists and plant doctors into one organization under plant medical director Ford Brewer.
-- Hiring a clinical psychologist to teach pain-management techniques to employees recovering from injury.
-- Tracking when employees are scheduled to see outside doctors and how soon they get in to see them. Brewer uses this data to call on area doctors to ask them to keep slots open for Toyota workers.
-- Retooling job skills for injured workers in a classroom setting called a "dojo."

Strain comes in many sizes
Toyota aims to address health problems before they start. Last spring, the company started analyzing the ergonomic strain in every manufacturing task. This had been done before, using data gathered from the company's plants in Japan. But there are physical differences between Japanese and American workers. The new analysis is more relevant for Georgetown because it uses data gathered at Toyota's plant in the United Kingdom.

To make the information fit a diverse American population even better, Toyota hired Waldemar Karwowski of the University of Louisville's Center for Industrial Ergonomics to adjust it further, when necessary, to reflect a manufacturing population of widely varying sizes and strengths. The ultimate goal is to "fit the job to the human being."

Another tool in improving plant safety is the Early Symptom Investigation process used to identify, analyze and eliminate pains before they become full-blown injuries. The program was rejuvenated in May 1999.

When employees identify discomfort and strains early on, two-thirds of injuries can be prevented, says Brewer. But employees use the ESI system only about half of the time.

According to Toyota employee Steve Vincent, ESI is a good idea, but long-winded forms deter workers from using it.

"If you're hurt or you're sore, the last thing you want to do is fill out a four-page form," he says.

The plant is currently addressing such complaints.

Making her job easier, safer
Heather Murphy sprays wax inside car doors and other cavities to prevent rust. Her wrist started hurting, so she filled out an ESI form, and last month a handful of managers who had done the same job videotaped and analyzed her work.

They suggested eight ways to make the job less stressful, including using a magnet to open gas tank doors, fitting a trigger adapter to a can to reduce tension and changing the spraying pattern to avoid twisting her wrist so much.

The aim is to get people back to work, where they can be productive at the jobs they were hired to do, says Pete Gritton, the plant's vice president for human resources. Career-ending injuries are a "lose-lose" situation, he says.

Production worker Tim Demsey has noticed the new attitude toward safety.

"Everyone wants a safe place to work. Everyone wants to feel safe at work," he says. "It's easy to talk the talk, but Toyota is walking the walk."

By taking a closer look at its safety practices, by learning from accidents, by fitting the job to the worker, and by addressing pain before it becomes a work-impeding injury, Toyota at Georgetown has overhauled its "average" safety program.

When plants make such strides, it is cause for celebration.

To learn more about Toyota, visit www.toyota.com.

Jamie Butters is a reporter for the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader.

This article appeared in the August/September 2000 issue of MRO Today magazine. Copyright, 2000.

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